6,000 patients were made aware last Thursday that our village GP Surgery which also covers smaller villages nearby will close on 31st March 2023. All 6,000 patients need to be transferred to 7 other practices which may be up to 18 miles away and there are poor public transport links. Consequently nobody is happy! Whilst I do drive, if my RA was particularly bad I might not be able to drive myself. I do not want to travel miles away to get bloods done either.
I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has experienced a similar situation?
Incidentally, this is happening in Steve Barclays' constituency and he's had a full inbox but all that's been offered is a public meeting next week. It's a foregone conclusion that the surgery will close, but everyone hopes to persuade the NHS to bring back the GP provision in the future.
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BoneyC
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This is happening in a village near me too ( maybe I’m near to you?) it’s going to cause the nearest surgeries, that are already suffering from a shortage of doctors, to be overloaded with all the patients from this surgery. It’s bad enough now getting to speak to a doctor let alone see one. I’m dreading what it’s going to be like when it closes. I’ve signed a petition but I’m afraid it’ll do no good and it’s going to happen whatever. Sorry I can’t give you any help. It’s a nightmare 🤗
If you are one of SB's constituents then yes, you probably are near to me. Our village notice board on FB and the surrounding villages are all saying similar, that it's not just the 6,000 patients but all the other thousands of patients at the 7 surgeries that we are to be reallocated to that will be affected. There's a meeting with the NHS next Tuesday morning and evening, but lots of people will be working and unable to attend. The evening session is limited to watching via Zoom, rather than being there in person.
It is hoped some form of NHS service can be maintained, or reintroduced into the village, i.e. a nurse/HCA for bloods, dressing changes etc. and prescription requests, but there needs to be a building or rooms available in the village. We are one of the largest villages in the district and, as such, ought to have our own GP Surgery. Will have to see what happens. I haven't bee seen in person at Rheumatology since September 2019, only phone calls, so have reminded them about an appointment, as can foresee there will be problems ahead.
yes I am a constituent. Hopefully you are right and some kind of service can be maintained but at my surgery now you have to use my GP at something like 7am to ask about your health. No point calling the surgery as they are not making appointments only for those needing one that have gone via my GP. I dread to think what it’s going to be like after the end of March.
I had my first face to face Rheumatology appointment in January for 3 years.. I think they are starting to clear Covid backlogs so hopefully you will see someone soon x
I sent a polite reminder this week to the Rheumatology Department and surprisingly someone phoned back within minutes saying delays are because of covid, but I was an urgent case.
Mmm, I don't think I'm an urgent case at all, but nevertheless feel its about time a doctor actually saw me F2F.
Around here they have introduced Urgent Treatment Centres which I think is to at sometime in the future going to relieve the GP's and I experienced one yesterday and to be honest although there for 5 hours it was well organised if a bit slow and my GP sent me therefor a scan. They were thorough but these days the shortage of GP's is impacting everyone. I'm in a rural area but the amount of new housing is awful and impacts on all the services.
We are the same, lots of new housing going up increasing the number of patients, but no increase in infrastructure. Virtually no bus service either for those people that need transport.
They did say there are a shortage of GP's and couldn't get any to come to our practice.
I read an article recently which stated that more people are applying for medical school but are not given places .. as there is a limit on this number! That is seriously wrong..
• in reply to
The cap on medical school places is now back to 7,500 in England. The government has even refused to extend the cap to accommodate students deferred from 2021 thus reducing the number of training places available for 2021/2022 applicants.20 Aug 2022spectator.co.uk › articleIt's time to lift the medical student cap | The Spectator
Sorry to say this but I have read that many GPs are relocating to the more affluent areas to practise, in my village it is the same but we do have a surgery once a week held in a mobile unit, but getting an appointment is another matter,
Part of our problem is that we are in one local authority area and the practice joined up with 4 other practices in a neighbouring authority about 4-5 years ago - definitely a backwards move and now we're paying the cost.
I’m sorry to hear this, and can imagine the stress it’s causing. Where I live they have built several new housing estates with around 6,000 new residents, but no thought to extra infrastructure to support this. The surgeries in the area are already struggling, as are most these days,
I was a nurse for 34yrs and have absolutely no time for Steve Barclay. He has been almost absent since taking up post. Much as I wasn’t keen on previous ones, at least there was a presence. SBs attitude around nurses striking and refusing to sit round the table is resulting in patients suffering more than necessary.
We have a small community hospital in our town, which ran a phlebotomy service. They decided to close it without consultation. Now if your gp surgery can’t fit you in for bloods you have to travel 20 miles via country roads with poor public transport. One year on it’s still being fought by locals to get it reinstated. I have 3 monthly bloods that are often a month late, due to surgery being unable to find an appointment, despite booking 4 weeks before they are due. Our nhs is crumbling, which is what they want, then they’ll rescue it with private health insurance, for which many MPs have shares in. I wish you luck, but fear it’s the usual paper exercise.
Unfortunately, training to be a GP is no longer ‘sexy’ for med students. Everyone wants to be a cardiologist now. And that’s a problem and has been for at least two decades.
I left the NHS in 2007 and even then the Chief Exec (my boss) was saying he’d be surprised if there were any GPs in 10 years (2017) and that there would be larger centres triaging directly to specialists. I do think that will be the way things go as that’s the model many countries have taken, but as usual, we’re far too slow and reactive rather than proactive.
That's medical school places, not GP specific. The fact is still that the new doctors don't want to go into general practice as they prefer secondary or even tertiary care.
it would make absolutely no difference to GPs as medical students don’t want to be GPs any more. The training is longer and it’s not seen as an attractive proposition
Don’t know what the answer is at all. Numbers have been declining for 20 years and as with anything NHS related, everyone does a lot of naval gazing and does absolutely nothing about it. My role in the NHS was interesting as I was privy to everything that happened. I coordinated the East Anglia chief execs forums that included everyone from Children’s services, ambulance trusts, mental health, primary, secondary and tertiary care and the MPs. I could write up the notes before the meetings ever took place. I wouldn’t be surprised if the agenda looks much the same as it did 15 years ago. 😢
These are Government decisions, not NHS ones. ‘Do no harm’ plays no role in Policy nowadays.
There is financial help for Travel Costs, but only for secondary care and those on low incomes. There are ‘buddy schemes’ to help with getting to appointments. I think Help the Aged do one (not guessing your age here)..
Try and get an appointment with a Social Subscriber at your GPs before they go. 6000 people is a lot..
That’s awful. We believe our practise is going the same way. It’s one of a group of 6 all in surrounding villages. One surgery has already closed so we have the impact of those extra patients & now they are building 800 new homes at one side of our village & several thousand at the other side without any thought of service impact. I’m currently waiting 18 weeks for a GP call back. And it only going to get worse. Unfortunately I don’t have any answers 🤷🏻♀️ I really feel for you x
The text said hopefully be seen in 8 weeks but it’s 18 now. Unless it’s an emergency like a chest infection. Antibiotics prescription gets sent to pharmacy without you being seen. I’ve asked a few times what’s happening & they said you’re still on the waiting list. 🙁 x
that’s the same here, many of the closing surgeries patients will have to move to somewhere where they are building hundreds of new houses too. These people will all need to register with a GP too.
I'm afraid this is bound to happen in many areas. GPs who trained in the past don't want to provide what they see now as just a fire fighting service -just seeing emergencies - and not spending enough time with patients to do a proper job. They retire early, move to other countries (Australia for example) or do something else. And there aren't enough new doctors in the system training.
Half the number of medical students that we need have been trained for years. Just as we don't don't have enough nurses, physios, occupational therapists, etc....
The hospitals, the surgeries, all falling to pieces as well. And Public Health has been neglected and that has a knock effect on people's health - they are more likely to be ill. It seems to me like a deliberate policy to run everything down so that private medicine can take over for those who can pay, and leave the rest to rot, just as happends in the USA. Sorry - it makes me so cross, when we did have such a good system.
the system has been failing for decades. It’s not fit for this era and hasn’t shifted much since the 1940s. And that’s the issue, Higher demand, higher expectations, higher costs but all sitting in an outdated business model. Europe and Australia both have amazing healthcare models. France is probably the best in the world and has no waiting lists but it’s funded properly with citizens paying two rates of taxation - one of which is solely healthcare.
Thankfully, our local NHS ICB have found a GP company to come in and take over for a year, but are yet to reach agreement on the lease of the building owned by an ex-GP of ours. Long term, we need a purpose built medical centre, the village is growing rapidly and there are CIL/S.106 monies to be handed out, but all this takes time. The village pharmacy are overworked already but it was announced yesterday that the temporary GP service will not have a dispensary, which will mean potentially everyone, all 6,000 using the small pharmacy. They will need larger new premises as well.
I saw on BBC news yesterday this is happening in Oxfordshire, but at least that GP practice gave 6 months notice, not 5 weeks that we had!
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GPs off topic ish
Off topic maybe. 
Anxiety off topic
